title: Exploring scarless healing of oral soft tissues.
abstract: Our research group is comparing clinical, histological and molecular healing profiles of oral and skin wounds using human and pig models. The goal is to determine the molecular cues that lead to scarless healing in the oral mucosa and use that information to develop scar prevention therapies for skin and prevent aberrant wound healing in the oral cavity. Wound healing in human and pig palatal mucosa is almost identical, and scar formation is reduced in oral wounds compared with skin. The striking difference between these tissues is transient and rapidly resolving inflammation in oral wounds compared with long-lasting inflammation in the skin wounds. Currently, we are looking at wound transcriptomes (genes differentially regulated) and proteomes (a set of proteins) to investigate how these wound healing responses in skin and oral mucosa are regulated at the molecular level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences, Laboratory of Periodontal Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, 2199 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada.
authors.forename: Hannu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Larjava
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wiebe
authors.forename: Corrie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gallant-Behm
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.forename: Jyrki
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heino
authors.forename: Lari
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Häkkinen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002921:Cicatrix / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012038:Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D013552:Swine; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*